Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is definitely an unsettling book. The author is extremely talented at creating a persistent unease throughout...all the while dealing with horrific topics of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and an extreme lack of intelligence shown by almost everyone in the book.

There wasn't a single character I liked...which normally really affects my enjoyment of a book...but really didn't here and that's definitely a credit to the author. Barry is a typical teenager but due to his intelligence, the mistakes he makes seem so much worse. Gurbaksh certainly differed from lovable to horrid and self centered and back again....and they were the 2 most likeable characters. Everyone else were absolutely horrific excuses for humans.

The story feels very organic...there are no shocks or major twists...even though in other books they may be perceived as such. Everything that happened here felt very natural and although some things were shocking as I had no concept of where this story was possibly going, the flow of the book was veru consistent, which I enjoyed...it was very well done throughout.

Think it could have been edited a bit...but the last few chapters were absolutely phenomenal.. wish we had another couple of chapters at the end though.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is important in that it shows how easily racism can build (even in self-aware individuals) and flourish in a community. The atmosphere of the book (rural 1980s) feels real and the narrator can be both funny and insightful. Despite this, I did not like any of the characters and felt there was little payoff to the story.

This is the first book that I’ve read by D Maclean and unfortunately, it will be my last, I found the characters lacking and without depth.

Thank you to Abrams Books and The Overlook Press for providing me with a copy of David Stuart Maclean’s novel, How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, in exchange for an honest review.

Barry Nadler is a kid trying to navigate high school in rural Ohio during the 1980’s. His father is an adjunct philosophy professor at a nearby college, who is discovering that his once bright future, has become stagnant. His mother works for a major hotel chain and is away for months at a time on business trips to foreign countries. At school, Barry is relentlessly bullied and socially isolated.

Barry’s life changes when a new student named Gurbaksh arrives at their school. By all accounts Gurbaksh, a Sikh who wears a turban, should be the new target of bullying; he is a foreign kid in a town where being different is not valued. However, Gurbaksh, who changes his name to Gary, quickly gains acceptance. Gary befriends Barry, allowing Barry a peripheral access to the popular crowd.

Initially, Barry is happy with his new friend, but things change when Barry’s parents file for divorce and his mom begins a relationship with Gary’s father. Barry’s home life goes down the toilet, with a despondent father and a mother who is still absent, although rather than traveling internationally, she has moved-in with Gary’s father a few blocks down the road. Barry begins to realize that Gary might not be a loyal friend and that popularity is a false sense of security.

I have to confess that I started reading How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, thinking that I was reading a memoir. I was about half-way through the story, where things start taking a very chaotic turn, when I double-checked and was relieved to discover that it is a novel. Relieved, because Barry has one hell of a horrible life, particularly the intense bullying at school. It’s horrific and immensely uncomfortable to read.

I wasn’t bullied much in school. I was a shy kid, who was neither popular nor unpopular. However, Maclean’s descriptions of the many ways that Barry is bullied is very uncomfortable to read. It is uncomfortable because it rings true and doubly uncomfortable, because I, like many people, bore witness to it and most of the time, felt powerless and was gutless to stand against it. Maclean shows the results of what happens when “good people” don’t stand up to bullying.

I felt shamed reading How I Learned to Hate in Ohio. I grew up in the same era that the novel takes place and although we were taught that bullying is wrong, we were not given the tools to know how to stand against it. Not just bullying, but also other issues such as misogyny and sexual harassment. As in the story, teachers and adults got in on the bullying or turned a blind eye. I hope ( and think) that kids today are more equipped to stop bullying and other damaging behaviors. I vow that as an adult, I will do better to fight against them. In the past year, we have seen the rise of the BLM movement and even more recently, violence towards the Asian community. How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is a very timely story as it deals with similar issues. It shows the tragedy that happens when we don’t stand against hate.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is an engrossing, unexpected, and important novel. It’s certainly not an easy or comfortable read, but It should be added to your shelf.

A surprisingly tender and funny novel which shines a light on the prejudice in 1980s rural America, as seen through the eyes of a young high school student named Barry.

What initially seems like a coming of age novel in which we follow Barry as he struggles with school bullies, a distant mother and a hopeless father, soon becomes something much deeper as he muses on racial tensions and the AIDS epidemic of the time.

When he finally makes a friend in Gurbaksh, a young Sikh who has just moved into town with his father, Barry’s popularity rises just as his home life begins to fall apart - and things soon become far more sinister until reaching a heartbreaking end.

There are so many things handled in this novel, and all done with great compassion and humour on the author’s part. As well as the teenage landscape of education, bullying, sex and parental divorce, which of course bring their own drama, there’s also the much bigger scope of racism and homophobia in small town America which leads to some shocking events. The author has definitely created that small town claustrophobia where gossip is king but no one knows anyone as well as they think they do.

If it wasn’t for the moments of humour and philosophy, this could be an incredibly depressing read (and of course it certainly has its moments) but the author has managed to strike a great balance in telling this story. I just wish we could say there’s been great progress since the time it was set in...

Touching, funny and a different aspect than I’m used to reading on racial tensions in America, this is a great little read.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio tells the story of Barry (Baruch) Nadler as he goes from a much-bullied adolescent in high school and ends when he’s a young adult. His father is a college philosophy professor and his mother travels a lot looking for new sites for Marriott Hotels. He’s relentlessly bullied until a new kid moves to town and becomes his best friend. His friend is named Gurbaksh (Gary) Singh and he is a Sikh. He is self-confident and instantly popular and Barry becomes more popular in his wake.

However, it soon becomes clear that Gurbaksh’s father had ulterior motives in moving to Ohio and Barry’s family is profoundly affected. It all comes to a crescendo when Barry’s dad throws a party, a party where Barry loses the girl, his best friend, and his mother.



How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is an excellent book. It is rich in character and a sense of place. It is full of humor and a love of humanity, a deep empathy that does tell us a lot about human emotions. It does not, however, explain how racism develops and festers. This is a story about Barry, not about the racists who plagued him and whose acts led to so much devastation. Barry does not become a racist. Yes, Barry learns to hate, but it’s personal, not the dehumanizing hate of racism. Barry does not lose his humanity, even when he fails Gary, even when he shames himself, his motivation is not from the dehumanizing hate of racism. So, if you’re looking for an explainer about how racism develops, you won’t find it. You will find, however, that hate comes in many forms, and Barry does learn to hate.

I received an e-galley of How I Learned to Hate in Ohio from the publisher through NetGalley.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio at Abrams Books
David Stuart MacLean

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean is a novel which take places sometime in the 1980s about a friendless teenager and his foreign friend. Mr. MacLean is a an award-winning writer from Chicago, this is his debut novel.

Baruch “Barry” Nadler is a freshman in high school with the impossible goal of finishing his high-school career unnoticed. When a new kid shows up, a Sikh teenager named Gary (Gurbaksh), the two become friends.

Unlike Barry, Gary is outgoing and mischievous. However, Barry begins to see how classmates, family, and the town people react to a Sikh family in town.

I didn’t know what to expect from How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean, but I figured a novel set in the 80s, which I remember too fondly, revolving around racism and xenophobia, which I remember not fondly, will be interesting. The story is told from the point of view of a bullied American teenager, whose eyes are suddenly opened to the hidden character of those around him.

The novel could be considered a dark comedy for the most of it. Barry is nicknamed “YoY o Fag” by his classmates, and just exists for the sake of finishing school in one piece and leaving. When Gurbaksh, the Sikh shows up, Barry’s life changes and they boys face issues they chose to previously ignore.

The book is very enjoyable and easy to read. The chapters are short and poignant capturing the mentality of a teenager unsure about himself, learning about life, sees his parents in a different light, and starting to realize that the girls are even more mysterious than they seem previously.

This is a book that’s meant to be discussed, there are many issues which, unfortunately, we see playing out in real time during 2020. The book puts a spotlight on issues none of us want to believe exist, but we know that they do. The story could be told in any small-town, not just Ohio. Could be in New Jersey, California, Texas, or the Dakotas.

The book’s first part is clever and tight. The second part of the novel becomes darker as it moves along dealing with homophobia, racism, and xenophobia in a small American town. This would be an excellent choice for a book club since there are many themes that could be discussed.

Baruch “Barry” Nadler is a white teen boy in small-town Ohio, and this book looks at his adolescent years as he befriends a Sikh kid called Gurbaksh; gets bullied by the bigger kids and called homophobic slurs; faces the breakdown of his family; and becomes a bit of a bully himself.

I admire what this book was trying to do - discuss how the bullied often end up becoming bullies if there’s someone below them on the spectrum of power + how easy it is to fall into bullying in a toxic town.

But, in trying to cover so many different issues, it ended up only looking at each thing in a very artificial way. And that artificial way seems to be the constant use of homophobic and racist slurs. I get that this language is often warranted to show just how bad things are, but I’m not entirely sure that’s the case here considering any further exploration of these social issues is limited.

It also didn’t help that while so much of this book focused on the social issues of the 80s, the protagonist is a white teen boy. A lot of the book is also about Gurbaksh’s story - the blurb says something about Barry being a friendless teen until ‘his world is upended by the arrival of Gurbaksh’. But Gurbaksh is just a side character and tool for Barry to grow and realise how racist his town is ??

Barry’s story is interesting and valid, but I constantly found myself wishing I was hearing things from Gurbaksh or Gary’s mum’s perspective, which was quite frustrating.

I really enjoyed the snark in this writing style. The narration was a bit stream of consciousness, which I think worked with the short chapters. Even if the story was in a slow spot, you didn't feel stuck because the chapter was soon to end and jump somewhere else. However, I had a hard time staying invested through the middle. I found the timeline to be a bit hard to follow as well and find myself not able to communicate exactly how long of a time period the story took place, except for it spanned from when Barry was about 13 to when he was about 18. I think. I also think the ending was fairly abrupt and didn't dig enough into the internal conflict within Barry regarding his view of the treatment of those around him and the prejudice around him. He identified the thesis, but didn't dig in like I expected him to.

Generally enjoyed this book and possibly will read other stories I find from this author.

3.5 Stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's a bildungsroman (my favourite), and it's full of wry observations of life in rural Ohio in the '80s. It has overtones of The Great Gatsby except that for Barry, our Gatsby, doesn't much like parties. Barry is the shy friend of an outgoing Sikh called Gary for short. The reader gets to witness the racism and the change in the community through his eyes. It resonated loudly in my ears!

It is a tender and insightful coming of age story that looks at race while being exceptionally well written. I found it moving, absorbing and akin to The Short and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, albeit set in a different state. I found myself looking up maps of Ohio and the distance between cities (growing up in the UK has lead me to marvel at the size of the US). The pace draws you in, events happen at the right time to keep you hooked. It's uncomfortable to read in some parts, but perhaps it should be?

What's interesting is that The Great Gatsby enters the public domain on January 1st 2021 and this is set to be published in January 19th 2021, so if a side-by-side read is your thing or even standalone novels, you're bound to enjoy this. Full disclosure: I hated Gatsby, but still considered rereading it after this book gave me the same feels, but in a more familiar and modern setting for me. Perhaps it's recognisable to me because of my age, or that the same opinions and systemic racism still exists thirty-ish years later.

The book is set in the 80's in a small town in Ohio. It is about Baruch "Barry" Nadler who is bullied at school and his friendship as it develops with a new boy at the school who is a Sikh. The book follows their friendship and the impact it has on their lives in Ohio.
Unfortunately, this book wasn't really for me - resulting in 3 stars

Baruch Nadler is a fourteen year old kid living in the small town of Rutherford, in central Ohio sometime in the 1980s. He’s your typical nerd/outcast/loner type, called “Yo-Yo F*g” by all the kids in school because of some stupid incident years ago. He has no friends, until one day, a Sikh kid wearing a turban - Gurbaksh “Gary” Singh - shows up. They start a friendship. But things soon devolve.

That’s really the best way I can describe the plot. I really enjoyed the first 40% - I thought Baruch was funny and smart, and I enjoyed the dynamic between him and Gary. But things started to get weird and go downhill pretty fast, mostly having to do with Baruch’s parents. He becomes an angsty depressed teenager super quickly, suddenly done with his social issues at school and feeling utterly rejected by his selfish dad and his erstwhile mom. He begins to hate Gary and overall, turns into a real asshole.

I get what the book is trying to do. It’s trying to delineate how a relatively open, nice young person can become an unproductive, hateful member of society. Ohio and its ways, plus bullying, plus parental issues can all breed hatred. But I didn’t truly feel that the book accomplished this goal (if that was indeed the goal) - I hated Baruch and couldn’t sympathize with any of his actions, attitudes, or developments. The ending was a gut punch out of nowhere, and I was left feeling a weird mix of emotions - disappointment, confusion, anger - at the way things resolved. Overall, either this wasn’t for me or I just didn’t understand the character dynamics and moral of the story.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!

I got How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart Maclean for free from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

Trigger warnnings: this novel is set in the eightes and uses terms that may be considered inapropriate now.

In late-1980s rural Ohio, bright but mostly friendless Barry Nadler begins his freshman year of high school with the goal of going unnoticed as much as possible. But his world is upended by the arrival of Gurbaksh, Gary for short, a Sikh teenager who moves to his small town and instantly befriends Barry and, in Gatsby-esque fashion, pulls him into a series of increasingly unlikely adventures. As their friendship deepens, Barry’s world begins to unravel, and his classmates and neighbors react to the presence of a family so different from theirs. Through darkly comic and bitingly intelligent asides and wry observations, Barry reveals how the seeds of xenophobia and racism find fertile soil in this insular community, and in an easy, graceless, unintentional slide, tragedy unfolds.

How I Learned to Hat in Ohio, is a novel written in the first person narrative style through the eyes of a teenager who has just started his freshman school.

Although he likes to be called Barry as his real name is Baruch named after a philosopher, in addition to this he is known by a nickname at school. Normally a loner Barry becomes friends with the new kid in school, Gurbaksh, a Sikh who lives with his father and has just moved into ohio.

This is a novel that works on a number of different levels on the one hand it reminded me a lot of Sue Townseds, Adrian Mole books, which is about a teenager in the early 80’s in the midlands of the UK.

This was particularly true in the comic way the novel deals with teenage angst of changing from a child to a young man. While dealing with the problems of friendships and trying to find your place in the world.

The novel is set in the mid to late eighties, giving it the backdrop of two things, firstly Reagon’s America, and the launching of a teacher on the space shuttle, one the backdrop of the story and the other the climax.

All this gives the novel another level as it examines the change of old America full of hope to modern America driven by money and despair.

How I learned to Hate in Ohio, is a wonderful read full of comedy and brilliant observations that can be read for its social commentary of 80’s America or just as a really fun read.

This book has originated by the author himself being bullied when he was younger.
Baruch, a young man whose father is a philosophy lecturer and doesn't earn much and mum who constantly travels for business and every time she is home, who barely spends time with the family or the time is just filled with arguments.
No matter what he does, Baruch is constantly bullied or undermined,. He is called wierd names and never feeli like he fits in- until Gurbaksh (Gary) comes along. Gary is a Sikh boy who appears to be easy going and befriends Barry. This book conveys the racism in the States in the early 1980s a d the consequences of it.

What happens at the end, is a wake up call to Baruch.

Funny, tragic, intriguing novel. Thanks #netgalley, #DavidStuartMaclean, publishers.

I may have grown up during a different Iraq war, but I assure you that the cultural landscape of Ohio was much the same during my teenage years.

MacLean shines in his formulation of the interior world of adolescence. It is familiar, painful, and realistic; and, while reading it, I feel very relieved to never have to be a teenager again. Striking such a balance between the banality of teenage life - living a pre-scheduled life at the mercy of your parents, your teachers, your peers - and the major events that mark time and make everyone's lives unique, is difficult. Spilling food on your shirt in study hall can absolutely feel more catastrophic than a near-death experience, and it takes a thoughtful and emotionally present writer to do it well, and to respect their teenage protagonist. MacLean absolutely does this throughout the book. Barry feels incredibly real and complex to me. The larger statements about racism and hatred, however, seem oversimplified and surface-level in comparison. They are thoughtful and true, but also obvious and they sometimes feel forced. MacLean's approach works better when he shows the more insidious, "socially acceptable" side of bigotry. The best example is the consistent use of Barry's nickname, "Yo-yo Fag," the "gay jokes" told at a party, and the reaction of the student body to the ultimate fate of their English teacher. None of these instances are expanded upon, and we are not given sermons about people recognizing their wrongdoing. Instead, through Barry's eyes (Nick Carraway and Dr. T J Eckleburg made great reference points), we are able to see the casual and accepted implications of hatred and bigotry without direct moral commentary. Similarly effective is the list of jokes about Challenger explosion. Again, my current events were different, but my generation had its own litany of horrific jokes. I cringed with recognition when I read them. I found all of these instances to be more powerful than the bigger storylines, because they showed me about hatred, rather than telling me about it.

I would definitely read another book by MacLean, and I hope that he features another teenage protagonist! (Not something I would normally say - ha!)

Many thanks to #NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

This is a very interesting book. It's the story of "Barry" Nadler who just started his freshman year. A new kid moves to town and they become best friends. The first half of the book has a lot of what you might see in a book about a kid who's bullied and made fun of at school. A kid with a parent who travels all the time for work and is absentee (mom in this case) and how this new friendship is impacting his life. It's well executed. Chapters are short, smart, and funny at times.

But then things start unraveling. Lives cross, things get darker and a lot of issues like homophobia, racism and xenophobia all come at once crashing into a terrible catastrophe. There are so many questions this book raises about parenting, family, relationships, friendship, race and bullying and so much more.

The book manages to be meaningful, funny, and tragic at the same time. Well done.

with gratitude to Netgalley and The Overlook Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Well-paced novel containing a lot of social commentary. The novel itself is about as subtle as the title, but a quick and interesting read, nonetheless.

Well Written, Grim, Hopeless

Our narrator "hero" does a very thorough, genuine, and depressing job of guiding us through all of the daily insults of teenage life. His observations are pointed and insightful, but his essential passivity and resignation is what colors this entire project. We've all read loads of books about bullying, racial and ethnic prejudice, homophobia, and the like, but the manner in which this book drives that home as routine and unexceptional is its most unnerving and depressing aspect.

I appreciated the quality of the writing. I was entertained by the dry, gallows humor. I was not at all surprised by the slow, inevitable downward arc of the story. Is it all a little pat and pseudo-realistic? Sure. Is it neat and tidy in a grim-yet-inspirational movie sort of way? You bet.

So, I don't know if we "need" this book, but at this point we probably deserve it. I'm not quite sure why it's set in the 1980's instead of now, although that did mean we could sidestep the social networking baloney that would otherwise have had to be included. It did lead me to wonder what a 2050 book about the 2020's will look like. Assuming, you know, that we still have books then.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

A book that drew me in sheds a light on bullying on emotionally distant parents.My heart went out to this young boy the book had moments of humor and very dark moments.Well written will be recommending.#netgalley #abramsbooks